Patents by Inventor Dirk Schulz
Dirk Schulz has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20210397173Abstract: An intent-based automation engineering method for automation of a production process includes: receiving an intent model, correlating to process intent, including production process functions, constraints on measurable properties on the production process functions, and/or production process function sequences required for the production process, as a received intent model; receiving a process model, correlating to process knowledge including a production process behavior, as a received process model; determining a machine-readable production model linking the received intent model to the received process model as a provided production model; and determining a control strategy for controlling the production process dependent on the provided production model as a determined control strategy.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 31, 2021Publication date: December 23, 2021Inventors: Dirk Schulz, Raoul Jetley
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Publication number: 20210365852Abstract: An automated maintenance schedule generation method includes: receiving planning data for designing a modular plant comprising physical modules as received planning data; selecting digital modules, correlating to respective physical modules, from a database, depending on the received planning data as respective correlating physical modules, the digital modules including maintenance information of the respective correlating physical modules; associating the selected digital modules depending on the received planning data; determining an expected maintenance need including an expected maintenance issue and/or an expected maintenance issue date for the selected physical modules depending on the received maintenance information as a determined maintenance need; and generating a maintenance schedule for the modular plant depending on the determined maintenance need.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 10, 2021Publication date: November 25, 2021Inventors: Dirk Schulz, Mario Hoernicke
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Publication number: 20210349454Abstract: A computer-implemented method for generating a construction plan for a modular plant that is to execute a given industrial process includes: providing a flow chart of the industrial process, the flow chart including a sequence of actions, each action having at least one input for an educt to be processed by the action and at least one output for a product produced by the action, at least one product of one action being an educt for another action; providing at least one catalogue of module descriptions, each module description characterizing at least the educt inputs and the product outputs of at least one physical process module, and physical actions performed within the physical process module; and decomposing the flow chart into functional units with at least one educt input, at least one product output, and one or more actions leading from the one or more educts.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 22, 2021Publication date: November 11, 2021Inventors: Mario Hoernicke, Katharina Stark, Dirk Schulz, Raoul Jetley
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Publication number: 20210349453Abstract: A method for generating a dynamic model of an industrial plant having: a plurality of physical processes that are dependent such that an outcome of at least one first process is fed into at least one second process; a plurality of low-level controllers, each controller acting upon at least one physical process such that at least one process variable of the at least one physical process is controlled to match a set-point of the low-level controller; and a plurality of sensors, each sensor measuring at least one process variable of one of the physical processes, and/or of the plant as a whole, the set-points of the low-level controllers and current values of the process variables measured by the sensors being the inputs of the model, and predicted future values of the process variables that are likely to result from applying the set-points to the low-level controllers being the outputs.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 22, 2021Publication date: November 11, 2021Inventors: Jan Christoph Schlake, Mario Hoernicke, Dirk Schulz
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Publication number: 20210350282Abstract: A computer-implemented method for managing an installed base of multiple artificial intelligence (AI) modules, each AI module transforming input data into output data by an internal processing chain, the input data including data that characterize a state and/or the behavior, of at least one physical plant, apparatus, or system, the behavior of the internal processing chain being determined by a set of configuration parameters trainable based on training input data and corresponding reference data to which the internal processing chain is to map the training input data, the method including: obtaining, from multiple AI modules and/or domains in which the AI modules are applied, pairs of input data and corresponding output data, and/or pairs of training input data and corresponding reference data, and/or configuration parameters, the data and/or parameters relating to same or sufficiently similar operating situations of the AI modules according to a predetermined quantitative similarity criterion.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 21, 2021Publication date: November 11, 2021Inventor: Dirk Schulz
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Publication number: 20210286346Abstract: A method of commissioning a field device in an industrial system network includes: a) connecting a field device to an industrial system network; c) providing information about the field device, the information including functional information for the field device; d) utilizing the functional information for the field device to retrieve information relating to a role of the field device in an automation application; f) utilizing capability information relating to a field device type of the field device and the information relating to the role of the field device in the automation application to retrieve a parameter set for the field device for operation in the automation application; and g) downloading the parameter set to the field device.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 14, 2021Publication date: September 16, 2021Inventors: Roland Braun, Francisco Mendoza, Dirk Schulz, Heiko Koziolek, Andreas Burger
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Publication number: 20200380126Abstract: A method for detection of harmful process intent in an intent-based production process includes: providing a machine-readable production model linking an intent model, correlating to process intent, including production process functions, constraints on measurable properties on the production process functions, and/or production process function sequences required for the production process, and a process model, correlating to process knowledge comprising a production process behavior; determining a safety library of at least one safety process intent, the safety library being protected by security mechanisms to be maintained outside of regular intent-based engineering mechanisms and operation mechanisms; evaluating changes of process intent in view of potentially harmful process intent dependent on the at least one safety process intent; and providing a report of potentially harmful process intent for auditing based on the potentially harmful process intent.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 29, 2020Publication date: December 3, 2020Inventors: Dirk Schulz, Raoul Jetley
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Publication number: 20200333770Abstract: A computer-implemented method for interoperable communication between a server and a client, at least one of the server and client being a component of an automation system, the server being associated with a corresponding server data model, and the client being associated with a corresponding client data model, includes: obtaining a reference to the server; analyzing structure and output of the server to derive, based on at least a first technical specification, one or more element types associated with elements of the server data model; generating at least a partial mapping between the server data model and the client data model by applying a transformation rule set to the server data model, the transformation rule set defining for the one or more derived element types how instances of the one or more derived element types are to be transformed from the server data model associated.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 15, 2020Publication date: October 22, 2020Inventors: Dirk Schulz, Thomas Goldschmidt
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Patent number: 10609567Abstract: A method for determining a wireless communication network realization in a plant where a process control system is provided includes receiving a user selection of wireless end point devices and locations of these in the plant, each being provided as at least one of a pair of endpoint devices that are to communicate with each other in relation to an automation function of the process control system, obtaining data communication requirements of the wireless endpoint devices, which are related to the automation functions and include at least one signal sent between a pair of endpoint devices and a time within which it has to reach its destination, and determining a number of wireless relay devices related to the locations of wireless endpoint devices in the plant for achieving a defined degree of radio coverage sufficient to satisfy the data communication requirements.Type: GrantFiled: February 18, 2016Date of Patent: March 31, 2020Assignee: ABB Schweiz AGInventor: Dirk Schulz
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Patent number: 10505786Abstract: A method for locating a possible root cause of system discrepancy in a process control system uses a system model including software representations of process control endpoint devices interconnected via a communication network using a number of links, where each link is provided for communication in relation to a process control function between two endpoint devices and includes a set of communication network elements and a reference to a set of communication parameters of the process control function. In the method an indication that at least one communication parameter deviates from a communication requirement is obtained, a link where reference is made to the communication parameter identified, communication network elements contributing to the functioning of the link identified and at least one of the communication network elements indicated as a possible cause of the deviation.Type: GrantFiled: December 3, 2015Date of Patent: December 10, 2019Assignee: ABB Schweiz AGInventors: Dirk Schulz, Stefan Bollmeyer
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Publication number: 20190342764Abstract: A method for determining a wireless communication network realization in a plant where a process control system is provided includes receiving a user selection of wireless end point devices and locations of these in the plant, each being provided as at least one of a pair of endpoint devices that are to communicate with each other in relation to an automation function of the process control system, obtaining data communication requirements of the wireless endpoint devices, which are related to the automation functions and include at least one signal sent between a pair of endpoint devices and a time within which it has to reach its destination, and determining a number of wireless relay devices related to the locations of wireless endpoint devices in the plant for achieving a defined degree of radio coverage sufficient to satisfy the data communication requirements.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 18, 2016Publication date: November 7, 2019Inventor: Dirk Schulz
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Publication number: 20180367368Abstract: A method for locating a possible root cause of system discrepancy in a process control system uses a system model including software representations of process control endpoint devices interconnected via a communication network using a number of links, where each link is provided for communication in relation to a process control function between two endpoint devices and includes a set of communication network elements and a reference to a set of communication parameters of the process control function. In the method an indication that at least one communication parameter deviates from a communication requirement is obtained, a link where reference is made to the communication parameter identified, communication network elements contributing to the functioning of the link identified and at least one of the communication network elements indicated as a possible cause of the deviation.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 3, 2015Publication date: December 20, 2018Inventors: Dirk Schulz, Stefan Bollmeyer
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Patent number: 10091066Abstract: An integration system and method, for a more efficient integration of communication devices in a distributed device management system (DMS), has several FDI and OPC UA components to be applied to and/or integrated in a DMS and providing one or more processing units, in particular at least one discovery unit as well as executable data structures, to discover and determine distributed operable communication servers and/or devices, in particular independent from their location, so to say independent whether they are located within the components of the DMS like for example the FDI servers, the FDI clients, OPC UA discovery servers or stand-alone in the engineering/control/field network, as well as to a corresponding DMS comprising said system and/or performing said method.Type: GrantFiled: September 11, 2014Date of Patent: October 2, 2018Assignee: ABB Schweiz AGInventor: Dirk Schulz
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Patent number: 9667755Abstract: A process automation system includes at least one wireless-aware component for detection of the occurrence (e.g., start and end) of a wireless volume data transfer from at least one other component which might be a wireless-unaware component. Upon such detection, the at least one wireless-aware component requests for bandwidth on behalf of the wireless-unaware component to decrease the communication time and subsequently releases this bandwidth again. A method is provided for operation of the process automation system, in which an upload/download is generally detected by either explicit initiation of the upload/download in the wireless-aware component, or by automatic detection in the wireless-aware component.Type: GrantFiled: June 27, 2014Date of Patent: May 30, 2017Assignee: ABB Schweiz AGInventors: Dirk Schulz, Markus Ruppert
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Patent number: 9533098Abstract: The invention relates to an injection device including an injector and an ampoule unit for the needle-free injection of a medium. A needle-free injection device has a first chamber with an interior that opens into a nozzle, and has a second chamber with an interior that is separated from the interior of the first chamber. The interiors of the two chambers are connectable to each other, thus allowing a mixing and/or reaction of the media located in the chambers. In the first chamber, a powdery medium can be accommodated, and in the second chamber, a fluid medium is can be accommodated. The fluid medium can be transported into the first chamber for the mixing/reaction of the two media.Type: GrantFiled: November 18, 2008Date of Patent: January 3, 2017Assignee: PAINLESS TECH GMBHInventors: Bernd Stormer-Talleur, Stephan Theuer, Dirk Schulz, Benedikt Lenzner
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Patent number: 9415704Abstract: A vehicle seat includes an adjusting device, for example for adjusting the height and/or tilt of a seat part structure and/or of a backrest structure connected to the seat part structure, wherein the adjusting device is fastened to the seat part structure.Type: GrantFiled: August 10, 2011Date of Patent: August 16, 2016Assignee: JOHNSON CONTROLS GMBHInventors: Stefan Haida, Dirk Schulz, Holger Finner, Adrian Pawlowski, Patrick Jakob
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Publication number: 20160182304Abstract: An integration system and method, for a more efficient integration of communication devices in a distributed device management system (DMS), has several FDI and OPC UA components to be applied to and/or integrated in a DMS and providing one or more processing units, in particular at least one discovery unit as well as executable data structures, to discover and determine distributed operable communication servers and/or devices, in particular independent from their location, so to say independent whether they are located within the components of the DMS like for example the FDI servers, the FDI clients, OPC UA discovery servers or stand-alone in the engineering/control/field network, as well as to a corresponding DMS comprising said system and/or performing said method.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 11, 2014Publication date: June 23, 2016Applicant: ABB Tecnhnology AGInventor: Dirk Schulz
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Publication number: 20160124409Abstract: A method exchanges or updates an old device of a process control system, wherein information is collected about the type and the entity of the old device as well as the type of a new device, wherein the information is compiled into a request, and the request is forwarded to an external service system, with which the request is analyzed and processed, whereupon a new device is compiled externally and is transferred to the process control system in a transfer and is integrated into the process control system.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 4, 2015Publication date: May 5, 2016Inventor: Dirk Schulz
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Patent number: 9056564Abstract: An adjusting device is disclosed for performing at least one adjusting function, such as in a vehicle seat. The device comprises a drive having a drive means and an output, a braking device that generally prevents torque from the output acting on the drive means. At least one spring is arranged between the drive and the braking device.Type: GrantFiled: July 24, 2009Date of Patent: June 16, 2015Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology CompanyInventors: Dirk Schulz, Stefan Haida
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Publication number: 20150012141Abstract: A method and computer system are disclosed to support technical tasks in distributed control systems. The system can store a workflow-aware object of a plurality of workflow-aware objects, wherein the workflow-aware object represents at least one component of an automation system. A computation component can be associated with the workflow-aware object, and have an interface to receive specific data of the automation system. The computation component can compute a workflow item based on a workflow item profile with user related information, and based on the specific data of the automation system, wherein the workflow item profile specifies an object reference to the at least one component of the automation system, and wherein the user related information is configured for retrieval of a user identifier associated with the automation system engineer. A workflow item collector can identify the workflow item based on predefined identification rules for communication to the automation system engineer.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 2, 2014Publication date: January 8, 2015Applicant: ABB TECHNOLOGYInventors: Dirk SCHULZ, Rainer DRATH